I have a user experience that I would like to share. My experience, however, is *EXTREMELY* negative, and might offend site visitors who have different viewpoints.

I was forced to take Risperdal and Geodon against my will. My experiences were so horrible that I cannot believe such a harmful drug is widely used. The side effects I experienced do not appear to have been well documented elsewhere. I have researched it somewhat, and I suspect there has not been adequate effort to disclose the harmful effects of these drugs. I would even go so far to say that there is an organized effort by drug companies to cover up the harmful effects of these drugs.

History

I was experiencing a very traumatic event. I discovered that some of my coworkers were stealing millions of dollars.In retrospect, I'm not 100% sure that they were stealing, because I only have circumstancial evidence, but I'm pretty convinced they were doing something really bad.

Anyway, I was so stressed out that I didn't sleep at all for several days. I did have a panic/manic attack. However, I believe it was a natural biological reaction to an extremely traumatic event, and not a symptom of mental illness.

I was scared and confused about what to do. I called 911 for help. I was admitted to the mental ward without being fully aware of what was happening. (I signed myself in voluntarily, but I was not in a mental state where I could give informed consent}. I never realized that something so horrible could happen to me.

They gave me several forced injections. I don't know exactly what I was given; I requested the hospital's medical records and they didn't keep a record of what drugs I was given.

When I was released, I was on a prescription of Cogentin (1 pill/day), Risperdal (3 pills/day; I think they were 1 or 2 mg each, probably 2), and Lithium (3 pills/day, 600 mg/day).

The side effects of those drugs were absolutely horrible.

Undocumented Side Effects

A lot of the side effects I experienced have been pretty undocumented elsewhere. I have researched it.

I do have scientific training (but not in psychiatry), so I do feel qualified to report my observations.

I felt a compulsion to sleep all the time.

Even though I felt a compulsion to sleep all the time, I did not feel rested. At night, I did not experience any dreams. I woke up every hour. Risperdal blocks your thinking and dreaming, so I was prevented from fully resting.

If a researcher is reading this, I propose the following experiment: Find 50-100 people with no history of mental illness. Give half of them a placebo. Give the other half Risperdal+Lithium, in the standard dosage. Examine all people for side effects. In particular, examine the sleep/REM patterns of the people. I believe you'll find abnormal sleep brain wave patterns in the people taking Risperdal.